Foreign Affairs officials are demanding that Washington explain why it has deported a respected Canadian engineer to Syria after he was seized by U.S. investigators and accused of having links to al-Qaeda.

Maher Arar, a 32-year-old Canadian citizen, was arrested at New York's Kennedy Airport on Sept. 26, subjected to a series of lengthy interrogations, then deported to Syria, where he had lived until the age of 17.

Mr. Arar's family says that for more than a week they had no idea what happened to him.

"He just disappeared," Mr. Arar's wife, Monia, said from Tunisia, where she was vacationing. She'd gone there on an extended holiday with Mr. Arar and their two children. "The whole thing is insane. My husband is a father. He works. He isn't a terrorist."

"The Canadian embassy in Washington is vigorously pursuing the question of the whereabouts of this Canadian citizen at a very senior level," Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Reynald Doiron said last night.

"This was a breach of Canadian sovereignty," said Riad Saloojee of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada. "This deportation was illegal, and it has placed the life of a Canadian citizen at risk. We are gravely concerned about the U.S. deporting a Canadian citizen without consulting the Canadian government."

At the time of his arrest, Mr. Arar was travelling to Montreal after a visit with his wife's family in Tunisia. After being seized by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officers at the airport, he was jailed at New York's Metropolitan Detention Center.

At the jail, he was able to make contact with Canadian consular officials, who last saw him on Oct. 3. They later heard that he had been deported to Syria.

"This is a very, very strange case," said Michael Edelson, an Ottawa lawyer who knows Mr. Arar. "You have to ask yourself what's going on when the U.S. is able to take a Canadian citizen and send him to Syria without any kind of representation."

Sources familiar with the case said Mr. Arar had been subjected to a nine-hour interrogation after being arrested, with no lawyer present. He was accused by American investigators of knowing a suspected terrorist in the Ottawa area.

Mr. Arar, who lives in Ottawa, is a highly regarded telecommunications engineer who had recently set himself up as an independent engineering consultant after a career with large firms.

Mr. Edelson said he found it hard to imagine Mr. Arar as a terrorist suspect. "We are talking about a very respected, solid citizen here."

Mr. Arar's wife said she was upset over both her husband's disappearance, and the diplomatic issues it raises. "It's not just my husband. It's the consequences for everyone else. I can't believe that the U.S. is prepared to deport people to Syria when they are citizens of another country."

Mr Saloojee said Mr. Arar may face severe punishment at the hands of the Syrian government because he avoided compulsory military service before leaving the country as a teenager.

Mr. Arar's sudden deportation has prompted Ottawa to ask for an explanation from Washington about what happened.